MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) Announces Quarterly Dividend of $1.80

MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, January 28th,Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be paid a dividend of 1.80 per share by the technology company on Friday, February 28th. This represents a $7.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.25%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 14th. This is a positive change from MSCI’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.60.

MSCI has increased its dividend payment by an average of 20.7% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 11 years. MSCI has a dividend payout ratio of 37.6% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect MSCI to earn $19.04 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $7.20 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 37.8%.

MSCI Price Performance

Shares of MSCI opened at $577.72 on Wednesday. The business has a 50-day moving average of $604.66 and a 200-day moving average of $585.99. MSCI has a 1 year low of $439.95 and a 1 year high of $642.45. The company has a market capitalization of $45.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.67 and a beta of 1.11.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The technology company reported $4.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.96 by $0.22. MSCI had a net margin of 38.83% and a negative return on equity of 156.08%. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $3.68 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that MSCI will post 16.86 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at MSCI

In related news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez purchased 2,900 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 5th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $612.80 per share, for a total transaction of $1,777,120.00. Following the purchase, the chief executive officer now owns 330,379 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $202,456,251.20. This trade represents a 0.89 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 3.20% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MSCI has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Barclays cut their price target on shares of MSCI from $700.00 to $675.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Wolfe Research upgraded MSCI from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. UBS Group lowered their target price on MSCI from $695.00 to $680.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $617.00 to $723.00 in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of MSCI from $662.00 to $695.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $649.23.

About MSCI

MSCI Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides critical decision support tools and solutions for the investment community to manage investment processes worldwide. The Index segment provides indexes for use in various areas of the investment process, including indexed financial product, such as ETFs, mutual funds, annuities, futures, options, structured products, and over-the-counter derivatives; performance benchmarking; portfolio construction and rebalancing; and asset allocation, as well as licenses GICS and GICS Direct.